It suddenly occurred to me that perhaps we should be fully supporting the Well Regulated Militia of gun owners, and that we've been failing to do so.
Currently "the militia" is defined as:
10 USC § 311 - Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
We should be letting the patriotic volunteers that have joined the militia assist the National Guard, helping out in states of emergency.
Gun ownership should come with an amount of responsibility. Those who choose to own guns should bear that responsibility and be considered volunteers of the militia.
The militia should be treated as National Guard reserves during a state of emergency, and should be able to be drafted into service to assist the actual National Guard as needed. Civic responsibility. It would be nice if militia membership required a small amount of training per year, but that could be construed as infringing upon the right to bear arms. (Though I suppose we already require special licenses for certain kinds of weapons, so proving proficiency as for a driver's license might not be onerous.)
We'd need a national database of gun owners to implement this properly, and I'd recommend a buy back program for currently existing gun owners that would prefer to reject membership in the militia. Penalties would also need to exist for possessing firearms without registering as a member of the militia. Militia members should also be liable for any damages caused by arms registered to them.
Ammunition controls could theoretically be implemented - requiring militia membership to purchase, but I'm not sure how effective they would be. At least a record could exist.
I think that these mild gun control suggestions wouldn't run afoul of the second amendment, just builds upon what's already written.
Should we be making use of the militia in this, or any other way?